How to win friends and influence people with social media networking by Lyndon Antcliff, 31 July 2009
To get results on social media sites you need great content with great headlines that will grab readers’ attention, make them want more and pass on a link to others. You will also need a significant network of friends and contacts or to be very nice to someone who has. Lyndon Antcliff is one such connector and here he gives 17 top tips to help you build your own social media network.
There is no shortcut for building a quality and sizeable network. It takes time. Use the following tips to make sure you make the most of your efforts:
Start with your own blog and make it the focal point of all your social media accounts with links to and from it. Your blog is where you show who you are and that you are a real person. People want to know about the people they do business with, and in a digital world your blog is the best place to show them.
Open accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg and LinkedIn. On each of these sites, find users who share your interests. There are thousands of social media sites, but start with the biggest.
Make sure people know about your social media accounts. Link to them on your blog, in your email signature and on your newsletters.
Find and join social sites for the specific markets you work in, eg WAYN for travel, Kaboodle for shoppers, Peak Performance for athletes, Sphinn for online marketing, MPORA for extreme sports, etc.
Pick an avatar that stands out. This is the photo or graphic accompanying your accounts and it is how you will be recognized. It is best to have a photograph or a graphic which stands out. If in doubt about what to use, keep it simple.
Make sure you have only one active account per social site. Admins take a dim view of people trying to manipulate their sites and it may get you and your website a ban.
Be open and accessible. Make all your social media accounts known and open to contact, comments and chat.
Be authentic. Don't fake it. Be yourself - you are what is unique and interesting about you.
The easiest way to be popular is to be helpful. Everyone loves someone who will help them at no cost. It also displays your expertise, builds your brand and reputation.
Be polite.
Make friends. This is harder than it sounds when you start out as there is little reason for someone who does not know you to be your friend. The key is to make yourself useful and to avoid being irritating. Searching for people with the same interests as you usually gets good results.
Spend a small amount of time each day on your accounts. Regular contributions over time will work and help you get noticed. The more people see you around, the more you will build trust.
Only present high quality stories to sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. Do not submit your own content initially. Vote on stories that are in your niche. Be seen to be the expert that you are.
Following a power user will not get you noticed as they already have too many followers to care about you. Follow people who are in your niche and have a desire to communicate and network.
Do not pay for votes or use automated processes to inflate your votes artificially, this may get you and your site banned and at best will only bring short term success.
Find interesting stories within your niche before anyone else. Use RSS or Twitter to subscribe to news and specialists sites whose content users of your social sites love. This is how power users got to be who they are.
Be persistent.
You can say hi to me on Twitter.
About Lyndon Antcliff
Lyndon Antcliff is a social media marketing specialist, who concentrates on creating viral content to build links. With a background in creative writing and over 11 years experience in web marketing, Antcliff offers website marketers training and consultancy in the art of seducing links out of websites. He lives with his wife and two teeny tiny children in Cornwall, runs Magnetic Web Content, blogs at Cornwall SEO and Twitters a lot.
18 comments
Great article. In your expert opinion, Mr. Antcliff, will websites with scientific content be successful at increasing traffic by submitting blog content to sites like Stumbleupon and Digg?
One blog in the center is a good idea. However some marketers, like me, they want a blog for each of their themes. Also otherwise multitheme marketers act a little bit differently, i.e. many market their businesses with their own marketing channels.
Good observations, good points. How many hours do you spend each day making your social networking work?
Leland
Lyndon,
Thanks for the great article!
For anyone that is looking to start sharing links on their profiles or blogs without having to type the entire url in you can use a link shortening service like http://bit.ly
Ex. http://bit.ly/4mtMyr
It also has the ability to post links to all your social profiles at once. I used it to Tweet this article ;)
Lyndon - Just sent you a "hi" on Twitter through one account.
Couple questions - do you see social media for ALL professions? I work with mental health counselors and they are hearing the buzz, but I'm not sure if their "product" is in-person therapy, they are best served with social media over other uses of their limited time?
Two - I have several businesses, what is the best way to keep my sanity and "voice" when I do cross over. I'm TheFirstDance on Twitter because it's my wedding relationships business (the biggest), but I also help therapists, using that account. I have a personal one to follow the polititians and celebrities that I don't want to mix with business.
Any advice? I'd greatly appreciate it.
@shel
"will websites with scientific content be successful at increasing traffic by submitting blog content to sites like Stumbleupon and Digg?"
Absolutely, diggers tend to be very interested in scientific content, although some of it is purile and very geeky, serious scientific content does get shared.
There are specific styles of content which do very well on digg. The best way for anyone to see if digg can help is to go there and search for pertinent keywords.
Stumbleupon has a different feel to it and is more like to share non newsy content. If you look at the type of scientific content within the site, you will see that it caters for all kinds of content, some serious, some not so.
The main point is to research and become a user of the sites to understand the kind of content the site loves.
@leyland
Right now I would say that it amounts to between 1 and 2 hours, this can rise however when I am building networks for clients as it can be very time intensive.
Starting from scratch I would say you could spend 3 hours a day for a month and build up a healthy network. It's mainly a time issue as you need to build a relationship with other people and not just treat them as stepping stones to build your online empire.
A lot of the people in my online network have become trusted friends, it simply takes time. There are no short cuts on this one but there are right and wrong ways to do it.
@elizabeth
Depends what you mean by social media, as blogging is regarded as social media and most professions have found it useful.
I would say, what are your objectives? Can your objectives be met by meeting people who share similar objectives? Social media enables you to connect with other people through sharing content and conversations.
It's difficult to advise on specific products as I would need to know more details to really say that it is what you should be putting your time into.
Best thing to do is have a look around at what is available and see how your area is being served.
"what is the best way to keep my sanity and "voice" when I do cross over."
Focus on why you are online and what your objectives are, these tend to provide a framework that allows you to develop the correct voice.
Trust your instincts. If it feels wrong, it probably is.
I find it is difficult to run a social media network that has conflicting interests. It really depends on what you are comfortable with.
This is a really simple and really helpful explanation of social media marketing and networking in general.
It's really great to see such open, honest and practical advice given in what can be such a fluffy subject.
Cool stuff - thanks!
Ben
I especially liked #14 Following a power user will not get you noticed as they already have too many followers to care about you. Follow people who are in your niche and have a desire to communicate and network.
Great tips overall. Thanks
thank you for your advice.
Thanks for the nice article. I have no experience in social media marketing. I hope I will be able to pick up some useful points by following articles and tips. Thanks
Lyndon, This is an excellent article. The advice is practical,and straightforth;I like that. You have cleared up much of my confusion as to "the how to" of using the social medias. I appreciate the indepth manner in which you appraoch this much needed (in my opinion) subject. Thanks Barbara
@shel While Digg users may be interested, be sure to distribute on Reddit.
Thanks for this article Lyndon. We're just getting started with our social marketing campaigns and this is great information!
Interesting article. I am on these social networking sites for business reasons but I don't maintain them efficiently so this is very helpful thanks
I loved your article. I am going to try my best to follow your instructions and what flies. Thanks, Maryladd
Thanks for this article Lyndon. considering myself as a newbee in Social Media, this will surely help me in building my social network
Thank you for sharing these great tips. I have tried to make use of all of these tips so far and have also been quiet successful. You are right, what's most difficult at the beginning is making friends. But once you have a few friends/followers established, the rest becomes much easier.
good info, I have created my profile for social networks, but it's not so easy to get friends